sediment

This week on the Coastal News Roundup, we take a look at barrier islands — what they do, and why the state is creating them artificially. Plus, we explore what less sediment in the Mississippi River could mean for coastal restoration and the return of a Jean Lafitte tradition: pirogue races.

According to new research, the Mississippi River delta will be much smaller in the future — even as the state plans to spend billions trying to rebuild it.

The researchers, led by Elizabeth Chamberlain — who is now at Vanderbilt after getting a PhD from Tulane — looked at how the Mississippi River used to build land thousands of years ago, which can illustrate how it might build land in the future. They took samples of sediment up and down Bayou Lafourche — which was the main river channel at the time.

WWNO’s Listening Post community media project has mostly covered issues related to New Orleans. But WWNO’s signal reaches far beyond the city, and we want to explore what people along the Louisiana coast are thinking.

Naturally, our expansion is called the Listening Coast, and it has its own number: Text "hello" to 985-200-2433 (or call and leave a voicemail!) to get in touch.

The Morgan City Harbor and Terminal District continues to search for economical ways to keep the Atchafalaya Bar Channel clear of sediment.

The Daily Review reports (http://bit.ly/NlVpSB) dredging is expensive takes three to six months. Ship captains begin reporting new sediment buildup in as little as two weeks after the dredging is completed.

After six to eight weeks, the filling channel becomes a navigational issue, engineer Jonathan Hird of Baton Rouge-based Moffatt & Nichol told the port district this past week.